Mother/Daughter Lunching

I remember in high school girls talking about going out to lunch with their mom's, and I can never think of a time when my mom took me out to lunch alone. But now that I'm a grown up we have been out a few times. And it is nice. My mom was working near my office today and picked me up and we went to Cosi. I had boycotted going there for years because I was bitter they wouldn't hire me once upon a time, haha.

Anyway, we went there today and I got the Pesto Chicken Melt. Wow, was it ever good. Chicken, pesto, sundried tomato spread, melted mozzerella. Yum.

It was nice to spend time with my mom too :)

BFF

This weekend I spent some time with my friend Liz. Had a sleepover Friday, she came to a class with me on Saturday, and then she even came with me to help me clean my grandparents house. What a friend! Then we went back to her house to eat some delicious raw, vegan icecream she made out of coconut meat, cashews, and cacoa. Yum! And we caught this beautiful sunset outside her porch doors.

I'm so thankful God has blessed me with almost 20(!) years of friendship with her! We have been through some good times, and some really hard times together and I'm thankful to have such a wonderful friend who loves me and who prays for me and encourages me. She has taught me so much about friendship and I hope I can be as good of a friend too.

Father/Daughter Car Repair Strikes Again

So I finally got my new car panels! The new door, fender were painted and my dad picked them up and even got me a new mud flap thing that goes around the tire. Good thing, my old one had a hold taped up with duct tape and held to the car by a wire!

Here again was the deer damage:

The inbetween shot before installing new fender:

and the new fender and door installed!:

I love having such a handy dad :)

Other events of this week included making this indianish butternut squash hummus:

Pretty tasty, but oh my gosh, the breath, the breath. Wow.

Anyway, TGIF! It feels like it's been such a long week and I am ready to relaxxxx.

Loins

Do girls have loins? If it's the area I'm imagining, that upper inside thigh area, and if that's what they are, my loins are killing me.

On Saturday, 3 days ago mind you, I did a bunch of kettlebell swings. It seems I did a bunch too many because my loins are so sore. But what a good workout, and that is definitely a trouble zone!

baby hat

This little flower hat will soon hopefully be on the head of Andrew's cousin's new little baby girl whenever she arrives this spring. Her shower is next weekend and I wanted to add something special to her gift. They registered for the cutest little pink and green turtle towels! I guess pink and green are in this year. Baby stuff is so cute!

Kitchen Tunes and Muffins

I set up the ipod dock thing my sister gave me yesterday in the kitchen. I was already jamming to some radio hits and glee music she left on there as I made a batch of muffins.

There it is up on my pantry shelf. I just downloaded itunes 10 since mine was like itunes 3 and it wouldn't sync, so hopefully that will work when I get home and can try it!

I made a big batch of bran muffins to keep in the freezer at work. That way I can quick grab a muffin, give it a smear of pb, and keep the growls away during that period between breakfast and lunch when I am always so hungry for some reason no matter what I eat for breakfast.

Stirring the muffins!

I think I just found this bran muffin recipe online awhile ago, but it's a good one. It uses fiber 1 cereal, whole wheat flour, which I always use half ground oats flour too, and it uses applesauce for the fat. I didn't have any, so my muffins got a tin of baby food prunes, mmm.

Yesterday Andrew told me he started tallying up his calories in some sort of app and discovered he is supposed to get 2700 kcals for his size/exercise regimen, and he only gets around 2000. I felt bad, like my cooking and bad lunch packing is to blame for him being 'lanky' as he puts it. Anyway, I love his body, but I do want to support his fitness goals. But I felt bad because I already have such a hard time with meal planning, and trying to make enough to last for dinner and next day lunches, and it's never enough! Plus trying to stay under the grocery bucks budget. It's SO HARD!! So I'm not sure what to do- I jokingly told him to just eat 2 cups of icecream a day. But I really don't know what to do. Maybe more pasta? Cheap and easy... any ideas??

Faces of Jesus

This weekend was such a busy one! Seeing Breaking Dawn again friday night with my friend, walking 3 miles in the park on a sunny saturday afternoon with another friend, her husband made us fried pickles for a snack! Babysitting Saturday night, church Sunday, and going to the DIA with my parents sunday afternoon to see the Faces of Jesus by Rembrandt exhibit

It was pretty good. The museum was super busy, and a lot of Rembrandt's sketches were teeny so we all had to crowd round. But it was good, I don't like those blonde hair Jesus paintings. Who would have thought someone from that geographical location would be blonde with blue eyes?? I mean, mabye, but probably not.

Sunday evening was a superbowl party at a friends house. I don't think I even knew who the teams were till midway, it was more fun to sit out the couch and eat good food with my girlfriends!

Came home and unloaded a few groceries, I happened to check the moth trap we still have on top of the refridgerator from our moth invasion of 2011 and what do I see but a new moth body!! >:( I thought we were done with that! And worse I have no clue where his lair is, almost everything we have now is in glass containers. So, it's a mystery...

Breakfast for Dinner

Oh my gosh, meal planning is exhausting. Even with a little extra money in the groceries budget I still end up running out of meat, or fruit or veggies or something by the end of the week! Plus getting t-i-r-e-d of the same thing every week.

Last night I made an omelet for dinner. Which was super yummy. I sautéed up some onion, garlic, potatoes, green peppers and broccoli

And layered it in my trusty omelet pan with the eggs, some tomatoes, cheddar cheese and a cut up jalepeno string cheese (will definitely buy those again!), then fried up some turkey bacon and a side of toasted english muffins. Yum!

The other day I came home to find a box outside the door, and inside was a 'care package' from my sister!

Yes, that is a nano ipod! I guess her roommate didn't want that ipod dock thing anymore, and my sister got a new ipod when she signed up with her bank, so I get the old one! Awesome :) and the cherry on top, a bag of my favorite dove dark chocolates! Mmmmm..... my sister loves me :)

I just have to figure out how to reload i-tunes on my laptop without having internet access, hope it's not too tricky!

Good Reads

Our latest book club book is Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

When I heard the girls wanted to read it, I was just like "meh". I had seen the movie trailer and it seemed weird. But the book was SO good! Another book that just sucked me right in and there I lay on the couch all day reading it, until I finished, and drove immediately to Target to get the second book.

The second book did that annoying thing where they kind of re-cap in case you missed the first book. But since I hadn't, I thought that was taking up valuable plot space. Anyway, it was a bit slow in the beginning, but it soon improved and now it's keeping me up late into the night reading every night. I'm sure I'll be back to Target soon for the 3rd and final book.

I like too that I read the book before I saw the movie. With Twilight I saw the movie first, so the faces of Bella and Edward I saw while I was reading were those of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson (not that that was completely a bad thing ;)) but I like that it's up to my imagination.
Since I didn't remember who was in that movie trailer anyway.

But yeah, great books, and now I really want to see the movie to see such a cool plot in action!